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Dedicated to the memory of Judith Bell: 1929–2015
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Glossary
References
Index
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Glossary
References
Index
Judith Margaret Bell, MBE, PhD was born in Nottinghamshire in September
1929.
Judith went to a primary school near her home. She passed the exam to attend
Brincliffe Girls School, where she learned shorthand and typing, skills that she
used throughout her life. Subsequently, Judith left school to work on the local
market. She also attended the local college in Nottingham to learn French and
Spanish. Judith then went to Manchester University to develop her love of
languages further. She spent a year at Madrid University, shortly after the
Spanish Government had opened its borders at the end of the Civil War. Her
fellow students were Spanish and so Judith’s fluency improved dramatically!
On returning to England, Judith was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to spend
time at the University of Madison in Wisconsin. While in the United States, she
visited Mexico and Machu Picchu in Peru. Judith taught Spanish and completed
a Master’s in Spanish before returning to England, having made many new
friends, some of whom visited England with a choir to sing in English churches.
Judith’s first job back in England was to teach shorthand and typing in Hull.
She moved to Ilkeston College in Derbyshire where she became Head of
Department of Languages, Catering and General Studies before being promoted
to Vice Principal of the College and then Acting Principal. While at Ilkeston
College, Judith completed a PhD at Nottingham University.
She then moved to Sheffield University, before working for the Open
University in Manchester. She wrote several course books for the Open
University, the best known of which is Doing Your Research Project , first
published in 1987. Doing Your Research Project has sold over 300,000 copies
and has been translated into seven languages.
Judith went on to work for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate in the Further
Education sector. She was awarded an Open University doctorate in 1997 and an
MBE in the same year.
Judith also held honorary professorships at the Universities of Lancaster,
Warwick, Leeds and Nottingham, as well as assisting with the development of
universities in Australia.
Judith Bell passed away in February 2015.
Fred Bell
March 2018
As Fred Bell’s Foreword explains, Judith Bell sadly died after the sixth edition
of Doing Your Research Project was published. It has been my privilege to have
known Judith since being taught by her on an Open University Educational
Management course in 1984 and subsequently collaborating on the first edition
of what has become one of the best-selling texts for first-time researchers. I
know that Judith would want me to continue to acknowledge friends, colleagues
and former research students who gave her their support to overcome the
inevitable challenges that accompany writing and updating a book of this nature.
Brendan Duffy , an exceptional former student of Judith’s, wrote Chapter 8 ,
‘The analysis of documentary evidence’, included in this and earlier editions.
Following extensive experience as a teacher and Deputy Head at various
educational levels, as well as contributions to teaching economic history,
educational management and history at the University of Salford and the Open
University, Brendan Duffy, PhD continues to publish academic articles on
nineteenth-century British history.
Brendan first met Judith Bell as his tutor for the Advanced Diploma in
Educational Management at the Open University. She became a friend who
proved to be a great source of inspiration and encouragement throughout his
educational career. After she invited him to collaborate with her, he found it a
great pleasure to contribute from the very start and throughout the subsequent
editions of Doing Your Research Project .
Thanks go to Gilbert Fan , Singaporean-based former postgraduate student of
the University of Sheffield, who permitted Judith to quote parts of his MEd
literature review in Chapter 7 and to John Richardson and Alan Woodley ,
both of the UK Open University, who gave Judith permission to quote from their
journal article, ‘Another look at the role of age, gender and subject as predictors
of academic attainment in higher education’ (Richardson and Woodley 2003).
Judith also acknowledged the contributions of two friends, Jan Gray , who
provided the narrative inquiry sections in Chapter 2 , and Katie Waterhouse ,
who supplied the ‘The top ten guide to searching the Internet checklist’ in
Chapter 6 . Her thanks to you both.
In Judith’s experience, good librarians generally know everything about most
things and so she ‘persuaded’ Richard Pears , co-author of Cite Them Right
(Pears and Shields 2013) and then faculty support librarian at Durham
University library, to read and comment on Chapter 6 (‘Literature searching’)
when she drafted it for the fifth edition. He commented in great detail and also
brought her up to date about online search facilities in libraries – and a great deal
more.
Fred Bell took on the boring task of reading all the scripts and checking that
the figures, tables, graphs and the like matched the texts. Judith described how
he winced at what he regarded as some of her oversimplifications and
‘unscientific’ language, and how she learnt which of his complaints and
objections to ignore and which to accept with gratitude.
Judith also expressed her gratitude to Michael Youngman , formerly of the
University of Nottingham, who devised the question types in Chapter 10 , which
have eased the burden of many research students in the early days of designing
surveys and interpreting the results. The generous assistance and support he
invariably gave to many struggling PhD students, including Judith, made the
difference between their dropping out altogether and actually finishing.
Judith always enjoyed Chris Madden ’s mazes, which appeared on the front
cover of the first to the fifth editions of this book. Judith acknowledged Clare
Wood , whose interpretation of the research maze stayed true to Chris’s original
concept in the sixth edition and now in the seventh edition. Judith would often
smile at the pictures of distraught researchers going down blind alleys, attacking
their laptops, losing patience and wondering why they ever started on the
research in the first place. ‘Yes’, she would say, ‘been there; done that!’
However, the overall image is of students who managed to negotiate the maze
and, having overcome the difficulties experienced by all researchers, are seen to
be leaving it deliriously happy, in academic gowns, holding their diplomas above
their heads, throwing their mortarboards in the air and setting out on new
journeys to do more and even better research. The book would not be the same
without the maze.
Nor could this seventh edition have been produced without all of your support
and encouragement. To you all, our grateful thanks.
• Chapter introductions provide ‘at a glance’ lists of the key concepts and new
ideas you will come across when you read each chapter.
• Dead End!’ boxes highlight potential risks or research problems, to help you to
avoid the common pitfalls that can lead you down blind alleys in the research
maze.
• Key terms boxes appear in each chapter linked to a glossary, providing you
with a guide to core concepts and research vocabu1ary.
• Checklists are placed at the end of all chapters, reminding you of best research
practice and helping you work through the research process step by step.
• Further reading sections provide ‘jumping off’ points to extend your learning
about research methods and techniques.
• Comprehensive references provide further sources that will prove invaluable to
you as you progress through your project and develop your skills as an
academic researcher.
Regardless of the topic or your discipline, the problems facing you will be
much the same. You will need to select a topic, identify the objectives of your
study, plan and design a suitable methodology, devise research instruments,
negotiate access to institutions, materials and people, collect, analyse and present
information, and, finally, produce a well-written report. Whatever the size of the
undertaking, techniques have to be mastered and a plan of action devised that
does not attempt more than the limitations of expertise, time and access permit.
Large-scale research projects will require sophisticated techniques, maybe
even statistical analysis, but it is quite possible to produce a worthwhile study
with a minimum of statistical knowledge. We all learn how to do research by
actually doing it, but a great deal of time can be wasted and goodwill dissipated
by inadequate preparation.
This book aims to provide you with the tools to do the job, to help you to
avoid some of the pitfalls and time-consuming false trails that can eat into your
time allowance, to establish good research habits and to take you from the stage
of selecting a topic through to the production of a well-planned,
methodologically sound and well-written final report or thesis – ON TIME.
There is, after all, little point in doing all the work if you never manage to
submit!
No book can take the place of a good supervisor but, if you can familiarize
yourself with basic approaches and techniques, you will be able to make full use
of your tutorial time for priority issues.
PART I
Chapter 3 looks at planning and structuring your research and how you might
make notes during this process. While writing the report seems a long way off
right now, it is important to be able to visualize how the report will be organized
and to appreciate how it might look when completed. As you will see, there is
far less variation in the format of research reports than you might think, and
understanding how you should present your research is important from the
outset.
Ethical considerations are reviewed in Chapter 4 . Even experienced
researchers begin with the best of intentions, but they sometimes come across
ethical issues they failed to see or appreciate. The issues of anonymity and
confidentiality are examined, and Stephen Waters explains how his intention that
the participants in his insider study of his own institution should remain
anonymous was undermined by his lack of foresight when the report was written
up. Luckily, the research report was not adversely affected and participants
kindly overlooked what could have been a potential problem, as their identities
were unintentionally revealed. We would rather you do not depend on luck but
avoid such problems occurring in the first place.
Part I also devotes a significant amount of space to how you manage
information, how you organize references and avoid plagiarism – using other
people’s words and ideas as your own. It asks important questions about whether
you will understand notes you have made today in the future. Even if you have a
good memory, will you really be able to go back to a specific page in a book to
retrieve a quotation that you have forgotten to write out in full? The answer is
almost certainly that you will not, and so it is important to get into the habit of
making detailed notes from the start – on everything, even if you think you will
never use it. While careful note-taking is time-consuming, it will save hours,
perhaps days, of work later in your research when you would otherwise have to
retrace your steps before setting out on your research journey again.
Whatever your research topic, it is highly unlikely that you will be the first
person to have researched the area, although the specific focus of your research
may be original (and if you are a PhD student, this will be essential). Chapters 6
and 7 concentrate on how to find relevant literature on your research topic and
how you should go about writing a review of the literature you find. This will
help you to put your research in the context of previous investigations and will
enable you to compare your findings with those of researchers who have gone
before you. A literature review should also give you a valuable insight into the
advantages and disadvantages of previous research, enabling you to build on
researchers’ successes and helping you to avoid similar problems.
I do not claim to be able to offer you an untroubled path through the research
maze. Nevertheless, I hope that this book will be a useful guide along the way.
However challenging your research journey, I know what a great learning
experience it is and how immensely rewarding completing a research project can
be. I wish you well as you set out on your journey.
1 The Researcher and the
Research Journey
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 invites you to set out on your research journey. It considers what it means to carry out
research and explores the roles and responsibilities that you will accept. It invites you to consider the
difference between roles that are explicit and roles that you might be asked to perform by your
participants. It prompts you to anticipate how you would overcome the challenges of being expected to
undertake ‘unintentional’ roles. In this chapter, you will find:
• A suggestion that undertaking research for the first time is like a journey: the more you can plan for it
and anticipate twists and turns, the more likely it is that you will avoid detours and reach your
destination on time.
• An explanation of what it means to carry out research.
• A discussion about what it means to adopt the role of a researcher.
• The ‘intentional’ and ‘unintentional’ roles of a researcher.
• The responsibilities of carrying out research.
Key terms
The following key terms are highlighted on the pages shown. You will find a definition for each
term in the glossary at the back of the book.
Research 10 Role: Intentional 14
Hypothesis 11 Role: Unintentional 16
Researcher Development Framework 12 Responsibility (of the researcher) 18
The research journey
‘ If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.’
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Wherever you are reading this page, you made a journey to get here. Unless
something unexpected happened and you are taking a journey you hadn’t
anticipated or you have ended up at an unintended location, you knew how to get
to your destination. Your journey may have included several stages and different
forms of transport. If the journey was unfamiliar, you might have used Google
maps to help you reach your destination. If so, you would know how long the
journey would take and the landmarks you would pass en route. However you
made that journey, you were responsible for making the decisions that led to
where you are now.
You might well be asking, ‘Yes . . . but what has this to do with research? I
don’t have much time. I just want to get going! The sooner I start, the sooner I’ll
finish!’ This is understandable. We all have busy lives and competing demands
that take up our time. But just like a physical journey, your journey through your
research project, from deciding on your topic, to writing a research brief or
proposal, to gathering data, to analysis, to arriving at the final stage of writing
up, needs to be planned if you are to reach your destination – a completed report,
submitted on time. Many hours will be saved if, before you set out on your
research journey, you have mapped out a step-by-step route, with dates by which
each stage is to be completed. This book will be your guide along the way.
Lewis Carroll’s indisputable logic at the head of this chapter is a humorous
but apt warning that we need to know where we are going to be able to plan our
route and avoid aimless wandering. There is of course a place for travelling
without a destination and allowing experiences to shape our journey.
Backpacking is a wonderful way to see the world, as well as to expand our
knowledge and shape who we are. But when we take on the role of a researcher,
what we will learn and our ultimate success rely on a detailed road map, based
on the experience of those who have travelled along the route before us.
On page 4, you will find a flowchart of your research journey, with each stage
connected to the one after it by a breadcrumb trail. You can find information
about the topics identified in each stage at the head of each chapter in the book.
The number of the relevant chapter is identified below the text in each stage. As
the aim of Doing Your Research Project is to provide an easy-to-read guide to
the process of conducting and writing up a research study, I would strongly
advise you to read through the whole book before starting out on your project. If
you have read through the book, you can then revisit each stage before
embarking on it. If time does not allow for this or you are anxious to get going,
you must at least read the chapter or chapters linked to each stage in advance of
tackling it. Some researchers have found it useful to re-create the flowchart on
page 4 in digital format and to shade the boxes as they are completed. Others
have taken an image of the flowchart using the camera on their mobile/cell
phone so that they have it with them as a reference guide and a reminder of their
progress.
As a first-time researcher just starting out on your research journey, you are
unlikely to need to consult the RDF in detail. I have, therefore, chosen a
selection of descriptors from Domain A: ‘Knowledge and intellectual abilities’
and Domain B: ‘Personal effectiveness’, which I think apply as much to a first-
time researcher as to someone experienced in conducting research.
• enthusiasm
• perseverance
• integrity
• self-confidence
• self-reflection
• responsibility
• preparation and prioritization
• time management.
Before you start feeling overwhelmed by the qualities and skills that the RDF
identifies, bear in mind that part of the learning process is to develop these skills
and qualities during the course of your research project. If you continue your
research journey beyond your initial research study, this process will continue
during Master’s or PhD research and beyond. You will see that many of the
descriptors are life skills that most of us continue to improve throughout our
lives.
It may be that the researcher takes on two or more roles at the same time, as in
the final example, where the researcher is both a teacher and a student studying
for a qualification. These roles are ‘intentional’ in the sense that the researcher is
aware of them from the outset. These are the roles that will be made explicit to
the individuals who will be the ‘participants’ or ‘subjects’ of the research itself,
and from whom the researcher will gather data, and the organization within
which the research is being conducted.
I have chosen a selection of factors from Domains C and D of the RDF that
you need to take into account, especially during data collection. They may be
relevant to a greater or lesser extent to your role, depending on your research
topic.
All research takes place in a social and cultural context and an important aspect
of the researcher’s role is to understand how participants might view their
research. You will have additional responsibilities if, for example, you are
conducting a research study within the NHS or in the legal or criminal justice
system, which have their own ethical requirements, especially when gathering
information directly from participants. Ethical considerations are addressed in
more detail in Chapter 4 . You are advised to be explicit about your role and to
provide a detailed explanation to participants of the purpose of your research and
what you will do with the information you collect from them.
We returned to the office in about an hour, after I had seen that all
the preparations for lunch were made. The cook had departed, but
the bearer and I between us managed to get things ready in a
fashion. I took a book to read with me, and busied myself in that
manner until, about one o’clock, Colonel Skene and some of his
officers, with my husband, returned from the scene of action. Our
first inquiries were for Mr. Brackenbury, and then it became evident
that something serious had happened to him, and all our fears were
aroused. After that, things seemed to assume quite a different
aspect, for the officers were all talking so gravely together, and did
not seem quite satisfied with the way things were going.
However, we went back to the Residency to get something to eat.
All had returned with the exception of Mr. Simpson and Captain
Butcher, who were still at the Jubraj’s house, and Mr. Brackenbury,
whose exact whereabouts were unknown. We had commenced
lunch, when my husband asked me if I would give orders that some
food should be sent to the two officers who were not able to leave
their posts, and I went away to a little room adjoining the dining-room
and commenced cutting sandwiches for them, as the servants had
disappeared, and one had to get everything for one’s self or go
without.
I had been busily engaged for about ten minutes, when I heard a
sound which filled me with alarm, and a bullet crashed through the
window above my head. It frightened me more than the one at the
telegraph-office had done, and I dropped my knife, left the
sandwiches as they were, and rushed into the dining-room. All the
officers meanwhile had gone out, and had found that the Manipuris
had crept round to the back of the Residency and commenced an
attack upon us, using as cover the Naga village which lay between
our grounds and the river. This was a clever move on their part, and
it was some time before the troops could drive them back, as most of
our men were engaged in holding the posts inside the palace
captured early in the morning, and this left only a small guard for the
Residency, treasury offices, and Sepoys’ camp. Eventually our party
set fire to the Naga village, and drove the Manipuris out. Bullets had
made their way through the window-panes and doors of the dining-
room, and had smashed some of the breakfast-things and the glass
on the sideboard. It was difficult to find out the most secure place in
the house, as the firing was hot in the front of the Residency by this
time, and the walls, being only lath and plaster, were little or no
protection.
My husband suggested my descending to the cellars, which were
under the house and built of stone; but I did not like the idea, and
remembered how scornful I had been when we had talked over
matters weeks before, and he had joked about the snug corner he
would make ready for me in the basement of the house. So I made
up my mind to remain above-board, so to speak, until the worst
came to the worst. It was heart-rending to see the work of
destruction which was proceeding in the different rooms meanwhile.
The windows were broken, and every now and then bullets crashed
into the rooms, smashing different things—first a picture, then a
vase, then a photograph. All my beloved household gods seemed
coming to grief under my very eyes, and I was powerless to save
them. We did try to collect some of the most valuable of our
belongings together and put them away in a heap in the durbar
room, which at that time had escaped with only one broken pane; but
it was dangerous work going into the front rooms to remove them, for
as the afternoon went on the firing became hotter, and bullets rained
into the house at every second.
It must have been about half-past four that the big guns began to
be played against us. It had been found necessary to concentrate
the whole of our force on the Residency and out-buildings, such as
the treasury and offices, and this entailed abandoning all the
positions captured in the early part of the day inside the outer wall of
the palace, and bringing all the men together. The wounded had to
be recovered from all directions and conveyed to the hospital, which
was some distance from the Residency.
Lieutenant Brackenbury had been discovered lying on the bank of
the river which flowed north of the palace, where he had fallen
shortly after the attack was made early in the morning. He had
mistaken the direction, having got the wrong side of the wall near the
Jubraj’s house, from which point he had been exposed to a heavy
fire from the enemy. It was only a marvel that he was still alive when
eventually discovered, for he had remained where he fell the whole
of that day, and the Manipuris had never ceased firing at him as he
lay. When his exact whereabouts did become known, it was a difficult
and dangerous task to remove him. Efforts had been made by some
of the Sepoys to drag him away, and a native officer had been
mortally wounded in the attempt. At last, about four o’clock in the
afternoon, he was rescued and brought into the hospital, and it was
found that he had received terrible injuries, being wounded in several
places.
The sound of the first shell which whizzed over the Residency
made me speechless with terror. I had heard the boom of the guns in
the morning, and knew that they had been used to try and drive
Captain Butcher’s party out of the Jubraj’s house, which had been
captured; but they had sounded some distance off, and I had not
realized how terrible they could be until they were turned against our
own house.
The cellars were by this time unavoidable. My husband told me
that we should have to make some sort of rough hospital in one of
them, as the Residency hospital, where the wounded had been
taken, was built of plaster and would not be bullet-proof; so we set to
work to get blankets and sheets down from the house, and
everything we thought might be useful.
Meanwhile shells were doing dreadful damage over our heads,
and we were afraid they might set fire to the thatch and force us out
of our temporary shelter. Luckily most of them went over the house
into the garden at the back, where they could not do such serious
damage; but the noise the guns made, added to the other firing,
which had never ceased, was deafening.
There was not the slightest doubt by this time that our position was
about as bad as it could very well be. I seemed paralyzed with fear,
and it was only by forcing myself to do something, and never thinking
or imagining for one moment what the end of it all might be, that I
kept my senses sufficiently to be able to make an effort to help the
rest. I heard that the wounded were to be brought up to the house
immediately, as the hospital was getting too hot for them to remain in
it. Poor fellows! they had endured so much as it was in getting there,
that it seemed very hard to be obliged to move them again so soon,
and take them up to the Residency.
There were a good many of us in the cellar by this time—Mr.
Quinton, Colonel Skene, my husband and myself, Mr. Cossins, and
Mr. Gurdon. It was about seven o’clock, and a lovely evening. The
sun was just setting, and the red glow of the sky seemed to
illuminate the landscape around and the faces of the colonel and my
husband as they stood in the doorway talking together in low tones.
It was no difficult matter to read what was written on both their faces,
and I did not dare ask what was going to happen.
At last my husband came and told me that we were to leave the
Residency, and try and find our way to Cachar. It seemed worse to
me to think of going out of the house than to remain there; but
whatever was to take place had to be at once, and there was no time
to spend in giving way to the terrible fear which possessed me.
However, a further consultation was held, and it was decided to
make a truce with the regent, and put an end to hostilities by coming
to some terms with him. A letter was written, which the Chief
Commissioner signed. It ran as follows:
‘On what condition will you cease firing on us, and give us
time to communicate with the Viceroy, and repair the
telegraph?’
While this letter was being written, the colonel had ordered our
buglers to sound the ‘cease fire,’ which they did at once; but it was
some time before the Manipuris followed suit. At last their guns
ceased, and all was quiet. Then my husband went out with the letter,
and called a Manipuri off the wall to take it to the Jubraj. The man
went away with it, and my husband returned to the Residency.
I remained where he had left me, alone for some minutes, though
some of the officers were standing just outside the door of the cellar
where I was sitting. It seemed so hard that I could not go with my
husband. I feared being left alone without him, and felt very lonely
and broken-hearted among so many men, mostly strangers to me. I
knew, too, that they would look upon me as an extra burden, and
wish me very far away.
I was roused to action by the doctor, who had taken advantage of
the truce to get his wounded brought up from the hospital to the
house, and had come up first to see what kind of a place could be
got ready. I showed him the cellars, for there were several, which all
communicated with each other, and formed the entire basement of
the house.
Shortly afterwards the Kahars[16] arrived, carrying poor Mr.
Brackenbury on a mattress, and the others followed fast, so that the
small cellar was very soon quite full of men lying side by side on the
stone floor. The blankets and sheets that we had already collected
were very useful, and I made several journeys up to the house, and
gathered up every kind of covering from every direction, and all the
pillows I could find. A little cooking-stove proved of great service. I
fixed it securely upon a table in one corner which I reserved for
cooking operations.
The soup we had made on the previous day was in great request.
Fortunately there was a large quantity of it, to which I added the
contents of five or six tins which I found in the store-room. Milk was
the difficulty. All the cows were out in the grounds, and many of them
had strayed away altogether and we could not get any milk from
them, so were obliged to fall back on condensed milk, of which we
also had several tins.
Some of the men were terribly wounded, but poor Mr. Brackenbury
was by far the worst. His legs and arms were all broken, and he had
several other injuries besides. It seemed a marvel that he was still
alive and fully conscious to all that was going on around him. The
doctor attended to him first of all, and had bound up his broken
limbs, and done as much as possible to alleviate his sufferings; but it
was a terrible sight to see the poor lad in such agony, and be so
powerless to lessen it in any way. He was very thirsty, and drank a
good deal of soup and milk, but we could not get him into a
comfortable position. One minute he would lie down, and the next
beg to be lifted up; and every now and then his ankle would
commence bleeding, and cause him agony to have it bound up
afresh. His face was gray and drawn, and damp dews collected on
his forehead from the great pain he was suffering.
That scene will never be forgotten—the little cellar with a low roof,
and the faces of the wounded lying together on the floor. We did not
dare have a bright light for fear of attracting attention to that
particular spot, and the doctor did his work with one dim lantern.
Such work as it was, too! Every now and then he asked me to go
outside for a few moments while the dead were removed to give a
little more space for the living.
There were some terrible sights in the cellar that night—I pray I
may never see any more like them; but being able to help the doctor
was a great blessing to me, as it occupied my attention, and gave
me no time to think of all the terrible events of the day, and the wreck
of our pretty home. I was very weary, too—in fact, we all were—and
when at about half-past ten I asked everybody to come and get
some sort of a dinner, they seemed much more inclined to go to
sleep, and no one ate much.
The dinner was not inviting, but it was the best that could be got
under the circumstances, for I had had to do it all myself. One or two
of the servants still remained, but they cowered down in corners of
the house, and refused to move out or help me at all. Perhaps had
we known that it was our last meal for nearly forty-eight hours, we
should have taken care to make the most of it; but no thought of
what was coming entered our minds, and long before the melancholy
meal was ended most of the officers were dozing, and I felt as
though I could sleep for a week without waking.
We all separated after dinner about the house. I went back to the
hospital for a little, and found the doctor wanted more milk, so I
returned to the dining-room, where I was joined by Captain Boileau,
and we sat there for some time mixing the condensed milk with
water, and filling bottles with it, which I took downstairs. It was
quieter there than it had been. The wounded had all been attended
to, and most of them had fallen asleep. Even Mr. Brackenbury was
dozing, and seemed a little easier, and only one man was crying out
and moaning, and he was mortally wounded in the head. So finding I
could do no more there, I went upstairs again, resolving, if possible,
to go to my room and lie down for a little while and sleep, for I was
very tired.
I went sorrowfully through our once pretty drawing-room, where
everything was now in the wildest confusion, and saw all the
destruction which had overtaken my most cherished possessions.
There are those who imagine that in a case like this a woman’s
resource would be tears; but I felt I could not weep then. I was
overwhelmed at the terrible fate which had come upon us, and too
stunned to realize and bewail our misfortunes.
Perhaps the great weariness which overcame me may have
helped me to look passively on my surroundings, and I walked
through the house as one in a dream, longing only to get to some
haven of rest, where I could forget the misery of it all in sleep.
I wended my way to the bedroom through a small office of my
husband’s, but when I reached the door I found it would not open,
and discovered that part of the roof had fallen in, caused by the
bursting of a shell. So I gave up the idea of seeking rest there, and
retired to the veranda.
I went down the steps and stood outside in the moonlight for a few
minutes. It was a lovely night, clear and bright as day! One could
scarcely imagine a more peaceful scene. The house had been
greatly damaged, but that was not apparent in the moonlight, and the
front had escaped the shells which had gone through the roof and
burst all round at the back. The roses and heliotrope smelt heavy in
the night air, and a cricket or two chirped merrily as usual in the
creepers on the walls.
I thought of the night before, and of how my husband and I had
walked together up and down in the moonlight, talking of what the
day was to bring, and how little he had thought of such a terrible
ending; and I remembered that poor lad lying wounded in the cellar
below now, who only twenty-four hours ago had been the life and
soul of the party, singing comic songs with his banjo, and looking
forward eagerly to the chances of fighting that might be his when the
morning came.
I wondered where my husband was, and why they had been away
so long. They would be hungry and tired, I thought, and might have
waited to arrange matters till the next day, as they had apparently
been successful in restoring peace. I had an idea of wandering as far
as the gate to see whether the party was visible, but on second
thoughts I went back into the veranda, and resolved to wait there
until my husband should return.
There was one of the officers asleep in a chair close to me, and I
was about to follow his example, when Captain Boileau came out,
and I went to him and asked him if he would mind going down to the
gate and finding out whether he could hear or see anything of the
Chief Commissioner’s party, and if he came across any of them to
say I wanted my husband. He went off at once, and I fell into a doze
in the chair.
It was about twelve o’clock at this time. I do not know how long I
had been asleep, when I was awaked suddenly by hearing the
deafening boom of the big guns again, and knew then that it was not
to be peace.
For a few seconds I could not stir. Terror seemed to have seized
hold of me, and my limbs refused to move; but in a minute I
recovered, and ran through the house down to the cellar again,